The 2024 John Pappajohn Iowa Entrepreneurial Venture Competition application portal is now open. The 19th annual statewide competition will award $100,000 in cash prizes to early-stage Iowa startups and entrepreneurial ventures that intend to scale operations in Iowa. The $100,000 in seed funding includes a $50,000 contribution from the late John…
Vice President Jack Chimbetete shares about the organization’s third African Business Fair When Jack Chimbetete first came to Iowa in 2018 as a participant in the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, the then-newly formed nonprofit One Voice DSM welcomed him and the other fellows with a ceremony and a reminder of…
WOI-TV: Like the old saying goes: to whom much is given, much is expected. For two well-known entrepreneurs in Des Moines, Rod Johnson and Pernell Cezar, they haven’t shied away from that. Since 2018, when they founded BLK & Bold, the company has grown into the largest Black-owned coffee brand…
The Iowa Board of Regents approved a new undergraduate major in entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business during its Feb. 28 meeting. The major will be offered starting in the fall 2024 semester. The program will be interdisciplinary and offer tracks in entrepreneurial finance, technology entrepreneurship,…
America’s SBDC Iowa has announced Melissa Fabian and Dustin Rhoades as the winners of its 2024 special entrepreneur awards. Fabian, owner of Simply Nourished Market & Mercantile in Mason City, is the winner of the 2024 Deb Dalziel Woman Entrepreneur Achievement Award. Simply Nourished offers organic, specialty and local food products as well…
NewBoCo has announced that Jill Wilkins, who has been serving as the organization’s interim executive director since April, has now been named to the position on a permanent basis. Wilkins succeeds Aaron Horn, who stepped down in April to take a new position. Wilkins spent 10 years with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District…
A 54-hour Techstars Startup Weekend DSM event, the first to be held in Des Moines in seven years, is planned for Jan. 12-14 at Maple Studios, organizers have announced. The event is meant to bring together designers, developers, marketers and startup enthusiasts to share ideas, form teams and launch startups….
Events are planned across Iowa in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week, which is from Nov. 13-19. Central Iowa events include the last web3dsm gathering of the year on Nov. 15 and the Immigrant Entrepreneurs Summit on Nov. 18. More Central Iowa events are listed on the Greater Des Moines Partnership blog….
David Tracy, founder of Northgate Marketing, has joined the business coaching team at the Iowa Center for Economic Success as a contract coach. Tracy is a marketing and advertising strategist with a global client base. His specialty is curating effective, in-depth marketing campaigns that bridge international and cultural gaps. Beyond marketing,…
The Iowa State University Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, Small Business Development Center, and the Ames Chamber of Commerce will host the fall Smart Start Workshop, a comprehensive workshop focused on the essentials of starting a business. The workshop is a community-wide event open to existing business owners as well as…